Calendars

Every year, about this time, I am immersed in preparing for our annual DVD and course catalog.  During the preparation, I frequently work on the next year’s plans while referring to past year’s actions.  I am required to juggle multiple calendars, and have been known to get confused as to what year it actually is.  This is the time of year when I purchase a new calendar for the upcoming year and start entering in dates.

First, comes birthdays – in a lovely maroon.  Next, comes holidays, always in a bright green.  Then, comes school holidays marked in a light grey. Then comes the non-profit company’s courses – they go in baby blue.  Our film dates go in marked in turquoise blue, and our courses in Utah go in using orange.  Finally, all the other privately contracted lecture dates go into the calendar in pencil – because I am always warned that they aren’t final yet and may change.  Later, when I know which dates I’m traveling, the dates and flights that I travel are entered in a lime green.  **ahhh** Color-coding with narrow-point Sharpies, it just makes my heart happy.

Yesterday, as I started to enter dates into my new 2014 calendar, I opened my 2013 calendar to copy down the birth dates from one year to the next.  My 2013 calendar was once pristine, like my 2014 calendar currently looks.  However, now its entries are crammed and jumbled together, sometimes with arrows pointing to the date with a note on the margin, because the square representing that date was too full to squish another appointment into the box. As I turned each page month to month, I noted how many of those entries were for medical appointments.  It just struck me to see a written record of all the times spent with home health nurses or in doctor’s offices in one year. 

A rough tally of my calendar counts 105 medical appointments – from August 2012 to August 2013. This is including the mundane dentist check-ups, orthodontist check-ups, visits to the general practitioner for flu shots & colds, annual physicals, and not just ER trips and oncology visits, CBC blood draws and hospital stays.   This isn’t even counting 3 weeks of Sean’s cardiac daily rehab appointments, because other people helped take him after I went back to work. 

I have also been keeping track of our mileage we have driven, for tax purposes.  Did you know that mileage to and from medical appointments can be included with your deductible medical expenses? From August 2012 to August 2013, we have driven a total of 4589.93 miles for medically related reasons.

Medical/dental bills from August 2012 to August 2013, BEFORE insurance payment/deductions, tally up to $241,833.67.  I have been keeping a spreadsheet that breaks down the original bill, the insurance deductions/payments, and our payment responsibilities. Thankfully, our responsibilities have been much less. (Let’s just say we could have bought a new car instead.) 

Some days, I feel exhausted, even though I know I haven’t expending the physical energy to feel that way. Looking back at the past year and seeing the cumulative total of everything, the feelings of exhaustion make more sense. However, each day on its own, has been manageable.  That’s my life - just taking it one color-coded calendar square at a time.